Misfire question

[skeetabop]

My 1858 Enfield has never misfired for me when I target shoot. I was deer hunting this weekend and it misfired twice. The cap went off, but no powder ignition. I put another cap on and it fired. Prior to both times it misfired, i had been going thru heavy brush and had to turn the gun upside down and all over to get thru the brush cleanly. After the second misfire, I cradled the gun and never let it go upside down or even vertical on my shoulder and it didn't misfire.
Any ideas on why if misfired?
The good part of the story is; when it did fire, it dropped 2 deer without problem.

 

[cliff mccann]

I've never used musket caps,but I wonder if maybe the brush caught the ears of your cap and pulled it up a bit,got it crooked on the nipple.My rifle has misfired when I failed to seat a no.11 cap all the way onto the nipple.When I push hard to seat the cap it goes on another 1/32" or so.At least that's what I think caused my misfires.I've had only two myself.

 

[skeetabop]

Thanks Cliff. I thought the exact same thing the first time, but after the first misfire, i had to go thru a few more thickets and turn the gun every which way to get thru and then purposely fired (after checking the cap and a few other things) and it misfired again. After that, i literally carried the gun like a baby, either cradling at a low angle or holding it by the barrel horizonally and never had another misfire.
I don't know enough about the inner workings from the nipple to the barrel, but i wonder if turning the gun upside down or completely vertical puts enough granules of powder to block the ignition to the total charge??

 

My Springfield will sometimes missfire if I dont give the minnie a good seating wack. I have cut the tip of my ramrod to conform with the bullet nose shape so as not to disform the projectile when seating it hard. I usually have this problem when making the first shot of the day. My Armisport has a patent breech so it is very hard to remove all the oil residue. I alway snap at least 2 caps before loading as well.

 

[Zonie]

... I wonder if turning the gun upside down or completely vertical puts enough granules of powder to block the ignition to the total charge??

IMO, if anything, getting the powder close to the nipple would help prevent miss-fires, not cause them.

One of the leading causes of miss-fires in a percussion gun is the powder is too far from the flash of the nipple/cap.

Loading without a cap on the nipple and with the hammer at half cock (to keep the nipple hole open) allows the powder to "blow back" into the flash channel while the ball/bullet is rammed down to the powder charge.

Perhaps I mis-read the original post, but I was under the impression that the cap did not fire.
If that is true, it could have been because it wasn't seated all of the way.
Another thought I had was, that turning the gun upside down etc as you worked your way thru the brush might have allowed some water (dew off of the plants) to get under the cap?

Of course, if it was dry as a bone, that would rule out that idea but if it was wet, water under the cap could cause it to miss-fire or if it did fire, the flame might be weak.

Just a few thoughts.

 

[skeetabop]

The cap fired, but no powder ignition on both misfires. Also it was dry as a bone, no rain all weekend. I always load without a cap and at half cock. After reading posts in this forum about conicals working themselves loose, i checked that and none ever did.
It surprised me cause I never had a misfire target shooting all year and then hunting it did twice.
Those caps are so hot, it's hard to beleive they wouldn't set off the powder. Your comment about the powder being farther aways makes more sense.
The other explanation is; in all the hunting excitement, i cleaned it too well and oil could have been occluding the igniton port? I fired a cap every morning before loading, next time, i will have to take my nipple pin and run it thru to be double sure it is open. I appreciate any ideas, I have all year to test it and get this fixed before next year season.

 

[mike alexandre]

Sometimes when I cap off theres a bit of cap left in the nipple. If I dont blow it clear then the rifle will not fire next shoot

 

[jethro224]

When I started I was getting missfires because I didn't slap the lock side of the gun after pouring a charge. When I started doing that every time the missfire problem stopped. Did you slap yours?

 

[skeetabop]

Yes, it gets the usual 3 slaps.
I was putting the caps on extra tight, maybe it did occlude after firing.